Sustaining Access to Telehealth Services |
We too, cannot imagine making patients forfeit the expanded access to telehealth that has become vital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As COVID-19 led so many to stay home, hospitals and doctors rushed to embrace the long-available but underused tool of telehealth—delivering health care remotely to keep both patients and providers safe.
Emergency federal and state waivers freed our hospitals and health systems to ramp up telehealth quickly. Telehealth visits at one Maryland health system skyrocketed from eight patients a day to more than 1,200.
MHA successfully advocated on your behalf to expand telehealth during the public health emergency. Now, we will work to make that permanent and codify requirements that insurers pay properly for telehealth. Legislation is needed.
MHA’s Legislative & Regulatory Policy Council approved Sustaining Access to Telehealth Services as a field priority in the 2021 session of the General Assembly. The council set four priorities for an MHA bill:
- Modify definition of telehealth to include audio-only
- Approve a patient’s location as an originating site
- Expand coverage for remote patient monitoring
- Secure reimbursement parity for telehealth services
Leaders of the General Assembly support MHA’s bill proposal. They can see telehealth broadens access to care, improves patient outcomes and satisfaction, and helps chip away at health inequities.
As a public official of another stripe said some years ago, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Tragic as this pandemic is, we intend to make sure the positive developments from COVID-19 produce lasting change.
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Bob Atlas
President & CEO
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Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital Accepting Patients—Transfer Criteria Changes |
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The Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital (BCCFH) —250 beds in the exhibit hall—is open and will continue to accept patients through the end of 2020. The transfer criteria for the hospital recently expanded. The field hospital now accepts based on provider-to-provider communication:
- Patients on up to 4/L of oxygen via nasal cannula with an oxygen saturation no lower than 92%
- Patients who might have greater difficulty with activities of daily living since BCCFH provides physical therapy/mobility support seven days a week
- Patients who need intravenous medications, including remdesivir
For a full list of transfer criteria, please visit the field hospital website. We encourage you to share this information with your ED directors, case managers, and hospitalists as you see fit. If you have additional questions about the field hospital, please contact Laura Wortman at [email protected]. To initiate a transfer please call the University of Maryland referral center at 410-328-1234 and ask to be connected to the triage physician.
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Uncertainty Surrounds Executive Order on Payroll Taxes |
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President Donald Trump took executive action Aug. 8 to defer the withholding, deposit, and payment of payroll taxes from Sept. 1-Dec.31 for employees whose bi-weekly wages are less than $4,000 before taxes—or roughly $104,000 annually. This would impact the amounts paid, not earned, beginning Sept. 1.
There are many areas of uncertainty in implementation the order. Plus, employers will bear an administrative burden to comply, and employees could suffer adverse financial effects if they must repay the taxes later. Therefore, for now, we advise members to await definitive guidance from the Treasury Department before changing any payroll tax withholding.
A KPMG analysis also notes several questions raised by the executive action.
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AHA Webinar: Strategies for Addressing ERISA Health Plan Denials |
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The American Hospital Association (AHA) General Counsel Mindy Hatton and Vice President for Coverage Policy Molly Smith with partners from Zuckerman Spaeder will host a webinar Sept. 9 from 3-4 p.m. to discuss strategies to address inappropriate ERISA health plan denials. Hospitals and health systems report a growing number of health plan reimbursement denials that are inconsistent with the provider contract and the patient’s coverage, such as medical necessity denials and restrictions on site of service that change mid-contract. These denials are costly and burdensome to dispute, and, in some cases, providers may not be taking full advantage of protections offered through the ERISA statute. During the webinar, partners from Zuckerman Spaeder will present approaches to successfully contest and ultimately prevent inappropriate reimbursement denials. Visit the AHA website to register.
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Webinar: Combating Disparities & Systemic Racism in Healthcare |
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The Maryland Healthcare Education Institute will host a webinar Oct. 14 at 10 a.m., Combating Disparities & Systemic Racism in Healthcare: An Introduction to the Issue. In this one-hour webinar, Dr. Nicole Rochester offers a historical perspective of racism in health care up to, and including, our current environment. Disparities that are well documented in the literature and research will be explored and, the subsequent implications for the health and treatment of patients will be identified. Sources of implicit bias in the delivery of health care will also be noted along with strategies for suppressing its negative impact on healthcare delivery. Additional details and registration information is available on the MHEI website.
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Opportunity to Expand Use of Electronic End-of-Life Care Documents |
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MHA’s Council on Clinical & Quality Issues identified improving end-of-life care as an important clinical activity. This includes accessing and storing the most recent version of key documents, including medical orders for life sustaining treatment, advance directives, and a health care decision making proxy. Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) can save, share, and retrieve electronic versions of these types of documents and would like to expand usage across the hospital field. A cohort of hospitals will begin working with CRISP to integrate the electronic tools into their processes. MHA secured funding that allows the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute (MHEI) to support hospitals’ implementation through a learning collaborative at no cost. If you’re interested in joining the cohort of hospitals, or want more information to implement an electronic end-of-life care document, please contact Traci LaValle by COB Aug. 21.
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Optum Administrative Services Organization (ASO) Updates |
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On Aug. 13, Optum began releasing claims payments for claims processed from Aug. 3-9. Per a recent Provider Alert, Medicaid payments were slated for Aug. 13 while state payments were slated for Aug. 14. Optum also released an alert requiring providers to contact Optum Maryland by phone in order to request authorization for an urgent Level of Care (Inpatient Mental Health, Inpatient Detoxification, or Crisis Residential) for a participant who is already in the emergency room, rather than using the Incedo Provider Portal. For additional information and/or questions, please contact Diana Hsu.
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Vizient Announces New PPE Contract |
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Vizient, Inc. announced a new agreement with Encompass Group LLC for its Novaplus Enhanced Supply Program that will increase the supply of personal protective equipment, enabling access to 40 million AAMI level 3 disposable isolation gowns annually to its member hospitals. The agreement also includes disposable bouffant caps and shoe covers, which are other items of essential PPE for health care workers. As a result of this agreement, Encompass expects to begin manufacturing in the U.S. in 2021. In the interim, they will continue to utilize manufacturing lines created in Mexico earlier this year in partnership with Vizient.
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